From leeches to laparoscopy
Who cut it first?
Foreign Affairs
Wrong Name, Right Operation
The committee has spoken
100
Before germ theory, disease was blamed on imbalance of these four humours.
What are blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile?
100
This transplant pioneer performed the first successful human liver transplant in 1967.
Who is Thomas Starzl?
100
From the French for “gnawer,” this instrument is used to bite away bone (often in ortho/spine/debridement cases).
What is a rongeur?
100
This wrist radiocephalic hemodialysis access is commonly (and incorrectly) credited to two nephrologists whose names became eponymous, but it was first created by this surgeon.
Who is Dr. Kenneth C. Appell?
100
These criteria (originally created in 1996, and since revised) define transplant eligibility for HCC.
BONUS: Describe them!
What are the Milan criteria?
Bonus: List the cutoffs: 1 lesion ≤5 cm OR ≤3 lesions each ≤3 cm, no macrovascular invasion, no extrahepatic disease.
200
In 1543, this anatomist published a landmark work based on human dissection, correcting centuries of errors from Galen’s animal-based anatomy.
Who is Andreas Vesalius?
200
Halsted pioneered this operation for breast cancer
BONUS: Describe the operation.
What is the radical mastectomy?
BONUS: removing the breast, pectoral muscles, and axillary nodes.
200
In the 1950s USSR, this “mechanical suturing” tool was refined into reusable devices for GI anastomoses.
What is the surgical stapler
200
This U.S. Surgeon General was the first to hold the office who was a trained surgeon, specifically a pediatric surgeon.
BONUS: What US president appointed him?
Who is C. Everett Koop?
BONUS: appointed in 1982 by president Ronald Reagan
200
This set of criteria (originally created in 1991 and revised in 1991) is the backbone for diagnosing hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (Lynch syndrome) based on family history.
BONUS: State it.
What are the Amsterdam criteria?
BONUS: “3-2-1 rule”
≥3 relatives with Lynch-associated cancer (CRC/endometrial/small bowel/ureter/renal pelvis),
≥2 successive generations,
≥1 diagnosed <50,
plus: one is a first-degree relative of the other two, and FAP excluded.
300
For centuries, surgeons believed “laudable pus” meant a wound was healing properly... until this 19th-century surgeon’s antiseptic techniques proved pus was usually a sign of infection, not success.
Who is Joseph Lister?
300
This surgeon performed one of the first successful clinical end-to-end arterial anastomoses after a groin gunshot wound.
Who is John B. Murphy?
300
This Swedish radiologist introduced the wire-guided vascular access method (1953) that underpins central lines, angiography, and endovascular surgery.
What is the Seldinger technique?
300
At Johns Hopkins, this surgeon became synonymous with high-volume pancreaticoduodenectomy and is reported to have performed over 2,000.
Who is John L. Cameron?
300
These criteria (originally created in 2007 by the national cancer institute) guide evaluation of thyroid FNA cytology into categories with malignancy risk and next-step management.
BONUS: Name the categories
What is the Bethesda system?
BONUS:
I - Nondiagnostic
II - Benign
III - AUS/FLUS
IV - Follicular neoplasm / suspicious for follicular neoplasm
V - Suspicious for malignancy
VI - Malignant
400
The red and white stripes on a traditional barber pole originally symbolized these two things from the era when barbers also performed bloodletting.
What are blood and bandages?
400
This elusive nerve, often implicated in post-op recurrent GERD, is named for an Italian surgeon
BONUS: it branches from this trunk.
What is the criminal nerve of Grassi?
BONUS: What is the posterior vagal trunk?
400
German surgeon Gerhard Küntscher pioneered this technique in 1939, and U.S. POW reports of POD1 ambulation after femur fractures helped spark its adoption.
What is intramedullary nailing (IMN)?
400
This surgeon led the first published report of a carotid endarterectomy in 1954.
Who is Felix Eastcott?
400
This conference (originally created in 2012 and recently revised in 2017) produced criteria for management of branch-duct and main-duct IPMN, emphasizing “high-risk stigmata” and “worrisome features.”
BONUS: describe criteria
What are the Fukuoka guidelines?
BONUS:High-risk stigmata: obstructive jaundice, enhancing mural nodule ≥5 mm, main duct ≥10 mm.
Worrisome features: cyst ≥3 cm, mural nodule <5 mm, thick/enhancing wall, main duct 5–9 mm, abrupt duct caliber change + distal atrophy, lymphadenopathy, ↑CA 19-9, growth ≥5 mm/2 yrs, acute pancreatitis.
500
This pair of twin physicians, considered patron saints of surgeons and twins, were described in a 6th-century account as performing a “leg transplant” around 500 CE.
Who are Saints Cosmas and Damian
500
This 19th-century Viennese surgeon pioneered major gastric resections and helped define modern abdominal surgery.
BONUS: Describe the namesake procedures
Who is Theodor Billroth?
BONUS: What is a Billroth I? Distal gastrectomy + gastroduodenostomy (reconnect stomach remnant to duodenum).
What is a Billroth II? Distal gastrectomy + gastrojejunostomy (connect stomach remnant to jejunum; duodenal stump left closed, creating an afferent/efferent limb).
500
This Austrian-Polish surgeon is widely credited with introducing one of the first gauze surgical masks in the operating room.
Who is Jan (Johannes) von Mikulicz-Radecki?
500
This often-forgotten and considered one of the greatest surgeon of the Middle Ages wrote that surgery is the highest form of medicine and described ligation of blood vessels centuries before Ambroise Paré.
BONUS: What suture was he famous for pioneering?
Who is Al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis)?
BONUS: What is Catgut suture
500
This system standardizes (originally created in 2005 and recently revised in 2017) reporting of pancreatic fistula after pancreatic surgery (Grades A/B/C historically).
BONUS: Describe the categories
What is the ISGPS pancreatic fistula classification?
BONUS: POPF = drain output with amylase >3× serum upper limit after POD3 plus clinical relevance.
Biochemical leak (formerly Grade A): no clinical impact.
Grade B: changes management (prolonged drains, antibiotics, TPN, percutaneous drainage).
Grade C: major complications (organ failure, reoperation, sepsis) and/or death risk.